Thread: H.P Lovecraft, Do you like his work?

O.K. Just curious as to how many people have read his work, like it and what they've read.

I like his work, I hardly get ideas from him. But sometimes I do include Miskatonic sp? University in them.

The man only created modern horror fiction.

I wrote an essay once that implied the monster in Alien was derived from the Clthulu (sp?) mythos.

That could possibly well be. H.R Giger, the artist responsible for the Alien designs was and still is a great fan of Lovecraft, even naming a few of his books after the Necronomicon

I read one book of his with short stories about dreams. I had to force myself through it, and the only reason I did was because I heard such grand things about him. Writing in the genre, I thought I owed it to my craft to read him.

I got rid of the book. Although I still feel obligated to give him another chance, I'm not in a big hurry.

I believe I have that book as well JS - Dreams of terror and death, The dream cycle of H.P Lovecraft? I agree that it's not his best works if it is the one I'm thinking of. What type of stuff do you like to read? Give us an example and maybe one of us can give you some recomendations of which stories of his you might like. Right off the top of my head At the mountains of madness is a long time favourite of mine. Reanimator is also good, as is In the walls of Eryx.

A curious thing about Lovecraft is that alot of his works seem to be little more than incomplete fragments, as if they were meant to be part of a bigger whole. At times it can be frustrating that he didn't write more about the things in his writing. I guess that's the price of dying young, as Howard did, not being able to go back and elaborate and/or fit everything together and finalise things. Then again I guess another take could be that he was either a genius or totally insane or a little of both and painted something that was as mysterious and fragmented as what he saw within his mind's eye. There is certainly evidence of this within the thousands of letters he sent his confidents, even going to the point of telling several of them different ways on how properly to pronounce the word "Cthulhu". Confused the hell out of the poor bastards when they each told eachother how to pronounce the word in 4 or so different ways lol.

All in all, the best advice I can give is to read each story as a seperate entity as well as a part of a bigger whole. After reading a dozen or so you will begin to see a whole new world unravel before your very eyes. Unleash your imagination a little and let your mind run with it and the wonders of Lovecraftian myth, both breathtaking and disturbing, will engulf every last sense and inspire every bone in your body like nothing you've ever experienced before. Good luck and happy travelling!

Thanks for the advice. I've enjoyed a lot of King's work. I loved Lord of the Flies. As a teenage I lived on Edgar Rice Burroughs, but 25 years later his books are little more than fond memories.

I've enjoyed reading books as diverse as Where the Heart Is to Grapes of Wrath to The Godfather. I suppose what's most important to me is story.

Well you'll certainly find alot of diversity with his works lol. Start with the ones I mentioned above and a few more off the top of my head to look out for maybe are the hound, horror at red hook, the alchemist and a few others I'll look up and post once I find em up again. They are all pretty diverse and are some of his good ones.

Unleash your imagination a little and let your mind run with it and the wonders of Lovecraftian myth, both breathtaking and disturbing, will engulf every last sense and inspire every bone in your body like nothing you've ever experienced before. Good luck and happy travelling!

Thanks. Your last paragraph is really inspiring, and I'm looking forward to giving Lovecraft another whirl.

nps Just glad to help, and open people's eyes to something that has been exceptionally dear, as well as lifechanging to me. Lovecraft has been so very fundamental to the way I write these days and inspired me to no end. I just hope you get the same effect as I have.

Almost every day that goes by, I find myself appreciating Lovecraft's works more and more.